finding my voice

I've lost my voice today. And truthfully I didn't really realize what a chatterbox I can be until I am robbed of my ability to talk. So instead of talking I'm posting a quick update to the blog.

In the last half of November, we surprised my family by showing up unexpectedly for Thanksgiving (big thanks to Rachael for facilitating that one). My dad's birthday was also that weekend so it was a double celebration. Griffin had a fantastic time hanging out with his grandpa... with everyone else too, but especially Grandpa. I think that was mostly because my dad gave Griffin everything he wanted. Cookies at bedtime? sure, why not?

a quick swim in November? You bet!

Man, Grandpa is a push-over.

So far in December we've been fighting a really awful cold that just won't seem to let go. And now at the very end when I'm finally feeling mostly better, the virus makes one last desperate attempt at spite and steals my voice.

And have I mentioned before that I love working in the Primary children's organization at church? This week I had a little kid tell me that I was "huuuuuge." But I suppose that before I start getting a weight-complex I should remember that earlier in the conversaion he told me that his mom's "really fast van" could drive from Colorado to Canada in twenty minutes. Hopefully, his perception of time and size are equally distorted.

And last but not least, this Christmas we had the 2nd Annual Huber Christmas Cookie-thon. Here are the results:

Free carpet...sort of.

Griffin really is much happier than this pouty face would indicate

For anyone who has been to my home, you'll probably remember the carpet in our basement. It's disgusting. Purchasing a home that was repossessed has its risks, and for us the risk was nasty carpet in the basement. Landon and I have been talking about frugal ways to re-vamp that basement ever since we moved in, but inspiration struck back in August when we were visiting my family. My mom told me about this calico-carpet thing that her mother had done a few times when my mom was a kid. It sounded fun and interesting, but best of all: it was cheap. The idea is basically to take carpet remnants and cut them into squares then create a patchwork carpet using carpet glue. When I describe it like that, it sounds like a really straightforward one-day job. Not so.

We spent several weekends searching for just the right free carpet, endured several carpet salesmen looking at us like we were crazy, spent several more weekends tracing and cutting carpet into squares, and then a few days gluing it all onto our existing carpet. Then it took me a while (I am embarrassed to admit how long) to muster the determination to finish off all of the little oddly-shaped pieces around the edge of the room.

So now, after more than a month of work, I am happy to debut the finished carpet here on the blog. I am really proud of how this turned out. And I am even happier with the price. If anyone wants to do this type of thing my recommendation is to give yourself a month of work time, and buy the biggest tub of carpet glue available (it's worth it, if only to save yourself four different trips to Home Depot).

A belated BOO!

I realize that I'm very late in posting this picture. And I realize that all of Landon's family has seen these costumes before. But I feel that these costumes are cool enough for a repeat, and cool enough to make up for my delayed posting.

In case you are not an avid Pixar fan, we're characters from The Incredibles (Elasti-girl, Jack-Jack, and Syndrome). One of our friends told us, "It's weird to see Elasti-girl fraternizing with Syndrome." When you think about it, though, Syndrome is a way cooler costume than Mr. Incredible. Plus, I don't think Landon would have been excited about wearing red spandex.

Funnily enough, Landon's cape got caught in the door on our way out:

"NO CAPES!"

Snow Day!!

Growing up in Arizona, I never experienced the childhood pleasure of a snow day. The closest I ever came was one day when the power to our high school went out. I remember that day as possibly the coolest day of my adolescence: board games, movies, ice cream, etc... I suppose it wasn't the activities of the day, but just the unexpected liberation that really made it fantastic. Anyway, in my mind snow days always had a somewhat mystical appeal.

Last week a snow storm rolled through and dropped 14-18 inches of snow over the course of 2 days. Because of the road conditions, Landon decided to work from home. In my mind all of my imagined "snow day" dreams were about to come true. I was really excited that as an adult I was finally going to get a snow day. My list of snow day expectations was as follows: hot chocolate, popcorn, blankets, movies, crackling fire, warm socks. Unfortunately, my imagination did not include the fact that "working from home" actually meant that Landon had to work. To his credit, Landon didn't get frustrated when I kept interrupting with things like, "Hey I was thinking about Christmas ideas and..." or "I'm rethinking our plans for that basement bedroom and..." or "What do you think about hanging curtains in Griffin's bedroom?" or "Remember that one time when..."

Truthfully, my mind is normally jumping around mundanities like that, but Landon typically isn't here to vocalize all of these thoughts to. It took me a while to muster the self-control to allow him to work in peace. So my snow day, in reality, was much more similar to a regular day than I expected. It just meant that I got to eat lunch with Landon.....ok, ok, so we took a hot chocolate and popcorn break too.

A few of his favorite things

Sure, raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens are just fine, but Griffin has a few favorite things he wants to add to Frauline Maria's famous list.

Spiderman toy
carpet lint
empty soda bottles
giant flashlights
watching mom brush her teeth
a package of earplugs (unused, of course)
chewing on flip flops
his teddy bear, Radar (thanks, Spencer)
pictures of himself
a wet washcloth
blowing raspberries
"helping" with dishes
open cupboards
drooling on mom's phone
unrolling toilet paper

Italy pictures

These are some of the favorite pictures from Rome. We spent three days in Rome and saw everything as quickly as we could. But even with our grueling touristic pace, we felt like we could have spent 10 days there and not seen everything we wanted to.

Truthfully, our trip could not have been better. We stayed at a marvelous bed and breakfast inside Rome's city wall. The guy who ran the B&B spoke something like 5 languages fluently. When we acted impressed he simply said, "What kind of a host would I be if I could not visit with all of my guests?"

And, of course, Griffin was a prince in Rome. LOTS of little Italian women (and men) made kissy faces at him as we walked by. One cute little lady we sat next to on the metro even gave him a saint medalion thing (I know there is an actual term for these but I can't think of it.)

Anyway, it was a fantastic city and an amazing end to our Europe excursion! Landon's favorite thing to say as we walked around was, "Can you just imagine this when it was in it's heyday!?" He said it so often that I started to recognize when he was even thinking of saying it.

Truthfully, now that we've been home for a while I've blogged less and taken way fewer pictures. I feel somehow a little less interesting in Denver, but I'll still try to keep the posts coming, you'll just have to forgive me if I'm slightly boring.

Prodigal Sleep

Since we've been back from Europe, Griffin has not once slept through the night. I know, I know, this could be considered my just desserts after all of the bragging I did about his early sleeping patterns. This could also be the price I pay for neglecting to give him a consistent environment for nearly one-third of his life thus far. Whatever your theory, this situation has been taxing, to say the least. There have been many nights where I've rocked a silent pattern of self-pity in the rocking chair as I tried to put Griffin back to bed, and many days where I've complained a not-so-silent whine of indignance to my family.

You may recall the biblical story of the prodigal son and the accompanying parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin. (I realize that this seems like a tangent, but trust me, I'm bringing it full circle) At the end of each of these parables the owner/parent/shepard of the lost coin/son/sheep call all of their friends to celebrate the restoration of something that once was lost.

And so today, my dear friends, I ask you to celebrate with me the return of my lost sleep. Last night Griffin slept for eight full hours in a row! Sweet, indulgent, eight hours. When he woke up at 5:30 this morning I could have clicked my heels. Hoorah for Griffin!! And Hoorah for me!!

Oh and yes, I still need to post pictures from our Italy trip, I'll do that soon.

Recommitted

Ok, folks! I've been back for nearly a month now and sadly haven't posted one darn thing. I've got pictures of our trip to Italy still to post, plus a little international quizlet for you all, but for now I'll start with a sumary of the last month.

First point of interest: jetlag is a monster. Griffin is still recovering from it...which of course means that Landon and I are still recovering as well. Poor baby doesn't know which way is up.

We got back into Denver on August 8th and spent a week here letting Griffin readjust to his home environment, before we confused him yet again with another plane trip, this time to Arizona. Griffin loved hanging out with my family, especially his Grandpa Griffin...I think that was because my dad kept feeding him cookies on the sly, plus he let Girffin play with his cowboy hat. I guess that's what Grandpas are for, right?

Then we came back to Denver for a few more days, just in time for Griffin to be really confused when we took off for Utah to visit with Landon's family. We had a great time getting to see Griffin interact with all of his cousins, and hosting a Greek party for Landon's family: gyros all around!!

Now if you're considering calling me a cruel mother for dragging my poor kid all over the place and neglecting to give him a consistent environment, trust me, I'm with you all the way. When we purchased these plane tickets it seemed like a great idea to visit family after we got back to the U.S. The logic being, of course, that we hadn't seen them in several months and Griffin was bound to grow up during that time. Would it not also be cruel to the grandparents to withhold their grandson from them? At least, these were our thoughts when we purchased the tickets.

Not that I'm having any regrets about visiting family. We really had a fabulous time. But perhaps it would have been a little wiser to space our travel out a bit. As it is, I'm sure that Griffin assumes that any day now we're going to pack up and move again. Hopefully, he'll get into a more consistent rhythm now that we are finally back in Denver for good. We've decided that we are not doing any traveling until Christmas time. So if you want to see us, you'll have to mosey on over our way because this rolling stone is kaput and ready to start gathering a little moss...but not too much moss, that might cramp my style.

Long hike, quick post

On Saturday we went hiking in the forrest. We ednded up getting lost (my fault), and then found again (Landon's fault). But as the picture below will prove, even getting lost was delightful because the forrest was so lush and gorgeous it almost invites you to lose your way. My mom told us that we should have sung "The Hills Are Alive" while hiking. For those of you who have heard Landon and I sing, you will know that this would have been a very bad idea.

Strolling Germany

We once again went on a stroll around the neighborhood, but this time we remembered the camera. here are a few highlights. We love Frankfurt and this doesn't even scratch the surface on the coolness of this city, but enjoy!

A cool park down the street from us.

This is the Alte Oper (Old Opera House) that is nearly next door to us. Please note how very chivalrous my husband is...he carries Griffin in the baby bjorn whenever we go out together.


One of the great things about this city is how you can have a 600 year-old watchtower next to a modern skyscraper. The juxtaposition is at once perplexing, refreshing, and inspiring.

Check out this giant tree we found in a park near our apartment. This was HUGE!

This is one of my favorite architecture pictures we've taken thus far on the trip. I think this cathedral dates back to 847AD.

German product review

While here in Germany I've had the chance to sample some products that I'd like to critique.

CEREAL: First of all, most of you know that I love cereal. In the U.S. one of my favorite cereals is Cinnamon Toast Crunch. I expected this cereal called Mini Zimtos to taste similar. I was mistaken. The cinnamon is way stronger than I expected. The best way to describe it is to say it is like eating a bowl of Big Red gum...except crunchier. At first, this was a dissappointment, but because we'd purchased a large box I felt compelled to finish it. By the time the box was empty I loved this cereal.

BRATWURST: I'm not a big hot dog fan. Sure I'll have one at a baseball game or a cook out (Becky, do you remember the lecture your dad gave me about the difference between a cook out and a barbeque? I have never again made the same mistake). Anyway, I wasn't expecting to enjoy bratwurst any more or less than hot dogs. But oh wow!!!! We made some friends at church here and they invited us over for a bratwurst cook out and it's embarrassing to say how many bratwurst I ate, so I'll just tell you that it was a lot and they were magnificent!

TOOTHPASTE: I don't know, and can't tell you what flavor this toothpaste says it is. What I can tell you is that it is disgusting. I will point out that I still brush every night and every morning, but with extreme loathing. It tastes like I'm going to bed with a mouthfull of weeds, and waking up with a mouthfull of dirt, with perhaps some undertones of black licorice. Ew.

BREADS: This one is very general. But the bread here is great great great!

GOUDA: And the cheese is even better!

Posts everyone!

I have been remiss in my duties as an international blogger, and for that I apologize. I hope to make it up to you today. I've got enough fodder for about three blog posts so hopefully I have the patience to download all of the pictures I've got.

First of all, here are a few pictures from last weekend when we walked around to a neat plaza (Romaplatze) in downtown Frankfurt.

This is exactly what I visualized Germany to look like. I was glad that there was a place that so perfectly fulfilled my vivid imagination.

A very talented street performer who is balancing a stacked tower of full wine glasses and plates on his nose while playing the clarinet. I'm not exactly sure what might inspire someone to perfect this specific skill, but it was rather entertaining to watch him work the crowd. Unfortunately, right after he got the whole stack of plates and glasses all balanced and started playing the clarinet it started raining and the crowd dissolved quicker than the wicked witch of the west, poor guy.

During the raintsotrm (at least during the very worst of it) we ducked under this bridge to keep dry. As you can see we were joined by several others, many of whom decided that this was a great time to light up a cigarette, grrrr. So for Griffin's lungs we braved the storm and ran to the nearest pastry shop...oh, the sacrifices we make for our son. As a side note, German apple pastries are delicious!

And here is a picture of a red scooter in the rain.

Stand in the place where you live

The other day I left Griffin on the floor playing with his toys and walked to the other room for less than 1 minute. When I returned to the front room this is what I found:

Surprise, surprise, my child prodigy is pulling himself up to a stand already. I had some of his extra toys on that shelf and apparently he found them more interesting than the ones I'd left on the floor for him. I don't mean to brag or anything, but this kid is a genius.

The temple and a castle

The first weekend here in Germany we spent mostly just acquainting ourselves with the downtown Frankfurt area. We are staying in an extended-stay hotel in Frankfurt, which essentially means that we feel a little less like we are living out of a suitcase, and a little more like we are living in an apartment...an apartment, mind you, where someone makes your bed and does your dishes for you. I really shouldn't get used to this.

Just a three-minute walk away is an old opera house and the financial district of Frankfurt. Like the nincompoops we are, we forgot to take the camera with us on our big walk around the area, so I can't show you the cool statues or the neat architecture yet, but I promise that I'll post some pictures of the neighborhood soon.

However, this weekend we went to the Frankfurt LDS temple and then to an old castle and thankfully we remembered the cameras.

Outside the castle walls

We weren't sure exactly where we were supposed to go, but once we turned down this street we realized we were headed in the right direction...you'll note the jubilant look on my face

No mattter how hard I knocked, they wouldn't let me in the back door. But I think I should get points for inadvertently matching my shirt to the exact color of the door.


Landon and Griffin walking around the castle grounds. The gounds were breath-taking. Lots of winding foot paths and orchards and a huge pond. We could have spent hours and hours just wandering the extensive property, but unfortunately a rain storm rolled in shortly after we took this picture.

Flowers with castle windows in the background



This is a cathedral we found along the way, cool, huh?

Anyone have to potty? This was the funniest thing of the day. Inside the castle walls they had a modern art exhibit. To me it seemed slightly incongruous to have a bunch of modern art next to this ancient-looking castle, but I suppose it just made the modern art stand out all the more.

Landon and Griffin at the Frankfurt LDS Temple. We got some good video on the temple grounds, but this was the best still shot of the temple.

At last...

For those of you who are sour that I haven't posted lately, allow me to defend myself. Over the past two weeks I've attempted to post at least three times only to be frustrated by reluctant internet connections. Now that I am safely in Germany and reunited with my computer (and I suppose I should mention reunited with my husband) and a reliable internet connection, I can blog to my heart's content. In this case my heart's content is three posts, mostly in pictures. Enjoy!

These are pictures from our last few days in Greece. We went to Glyfada, the beach district of Athens and stayed at a hotel across the street from the beach.
Griffin and I at sunset on the beach. Check out the giant fishing pole behind us, I swear that thing was 12 feet long.

Rachael and Griffin playing in the waves. You can just see Noel's head behind that giant wave. Somehow, Noel avoided being in most of the pictures this day.

This was our last evening in Greece. One of the things we loved about walking along this beach was that you could see some islands off in the distance. Additionally, it's too bad that all of the people I know who collect rocks have stopped collecting them (Anna, I'm looking in your direction), because there were some really cool rocks on this beach.

Outshining the moonlight

Landon left on Monday. That night Noel and Rachael went to see Swan Lake while I watched Griffin. We had planned that Tuesday night the girls would watch Griffin while Landon and I went to the ballet, but in Landon's absence, Rachael accompanied me to the ballet while Noel took care of Griffin (Thanks, Noel you are too kind!).

First of all, we watched the ST. PETERSBURG BALLET!! (arguably the best ballet company in the entire world). They performed Swan Lake (perhaps my favorite ballet) written by Tchaikovsky (historically, the premier ballet composer). We watched from the Odeon of Herodes Atticus (an ancient Greek outdoor amphitheater) under a full moon. Truthfully, this was one of the coolest experiences of my life.

I could try to descibe the grace, complexity, presicion, and artisrty of the evening, but I'd be sure to fall woefully short of the mark. Just take my word for it: AMAZING!!! If you ever have the chance to attend this ballet, or this ballet company, or an outdoor production in an ancient theater at a full moon, I recommend that you do so.

Alive at Sunrise...surprise!

My family is notorious for being irritable and crotchety before 8 a.m. (My father, of course, is the notable exception. Sadly, his AM cheeriness only makes us grumpier) So when Landon suggested that we venture on a sunrise hike to the outlook point across from the Acropolis, I was more than a little hesitant. But as these pictures chronicle, we did get up for sunrise, we did hike the 3 kilometers, and we were cheerful for most of the trip. (Except for when a stray dog charged at Noel and Rachael and they ran to hide behind the baby). Truthfully,

this was one of our favorite moments of the entire weekend. Check it out:

Sweet digs at Delphi

For our Happy Fourth of July weekend, Landon, Noel, Rachael, Griffin, and I headed to Delphi. Delphi is about 2.5 hours from Athens by car and about 3.5 hours by bus. For those of you who are looking for Greece travel tips (Sade and Emily, I nod knowingly in your direction), Delphi is totally worth the drive...but only if you rent a car and stay in Arahova which is ten minutes outside of Delphi.

We stayed in a ski resort hotel/spa, and since this is the off season for skiing we got a great deal on the room, an awesome view of the mountains, and top notch service because we were nearly the only ones there. It was 100% worth the ten minute drive to Delphi.

The hotel we stayed at was my favorite Greek hotel by far! It's a swanky family-owned resort. At breakfast the hotel manager kept bringing out tray after tray of pastries, breads, fruits, eggs, cheeses, meats, and more pastries. Happy Fourth of July, let's eat like Americans!

The ruins at Delphi were incredible, the museum was breathtaking, and (though he did get a little hot and sweaty) the Griffin was happy. Here are a few of my favorite pictures.

Typically I'm not a fan of shots from behind, but I really liked this one of Landon and I walking around the ruins at Delphi.

The sisters at Delphi. We're overlooking an amphitheater, I don't remember the name of this one, because there were lots of them. And check out that view! From where we were standing you could see all the way out to the Mediterranean Sea...unfortunately, not in this picture. Please note that in every single picture, Rachael is looking like a movie star and Noel and I look like tourists.

This was my favorite thing at the Delphi Museum: a sphinx, two of which used to stand atop 25 foot columns at the entrance to the Treasury at Delphi.

I don't know what I was saying when this photo was taken, but apparently I had to say it with attituide.

Change of plans

The emotions of the last week, summed up in a series of chronological exclamatory statements:

When we signed up for this gig in Greece (and by 'gig' I mean audit), we were excited by the opportunity to visit a Euopean country for three months.

Yay

Because we were planning on this three month stint to be a fairly reliable arrangement, we invited anyone who wanted to visit Greece to make the trip while we were here. My sisters took me up on the idea and they are here visiting for two weeks.

Hooray!

So you might imagine the anxiety I felt when last week Landon's office told him that he was being re-assigned to an audit in Germany starting next Monday.

Uhhhh.

Griffin and I will tag along to Germany. I've never been to Germany before. My childhood dance teacher visited Germany often and every time she came back from a trip I vowed that one day I'd go see what all the hooplah was about. So, in a sense, this turn of events will help me to fulfill a childhood dream.

Sweet!

The best part about going to Germany is that the hotel we will stay at there has laundry machines on site. Here in Greece, Landon's company will pay for him to send out his laundry, but not for Griffin and I. Not a problem if there is a laundromat nearby, unfortunately, from what I can tell, the front desk people here don't know what a laundromat is, so I've been washing clothes in the tub. I'm excessively thrilled at the prospect of a washing machine. No more laundry in the tub.

Hallelujah!

However, next Monday (Landon's departure date) is half way through my sisters' visit.

Eeek!

We've decided that Griffin and I will stay in Greece without Landon for a week...

Awww, man

...and make it a sisters' vacation.

Awesome!

This weekend we misplaced Landon's wallet and still can't find it. We don't think he was pickpocketed because there hasn't been any activity on our accounts at all, so please pray with us that we'll find it in the bottom of a suitcase...not that we haven't already looked there.

Shoot.

During the first weekend of my sisters' visit we've had a lot of fun, and we've got some really cool stuff planned for this weekend before Landon leaves. Stay tuned to the blog for those adventures.

Hmmm.

But for now enjoy these pictures from the first few days of my sisters' visit.

Cool.

Ruins of the Temple of Zeus. Through the bottom arch you can see the Acropolis on the hill. This was right after church on Sunday. The church building is across the street and down one block from where we are standing.

Statuesque Rachael soaking it all in at the National Gardens.

Noel and Griffin at the National Gardens. We strolled around the gardens on Sunday afternoon. The girls managed jet lag way better than I had expected, but even so, it was nice to have a relaxing Sabbath day on the day after they arrived.

And speaking of relaxing, here I am lounging about on the grass after our picnic in the park on Sunday. Can life get any better? I submit that it cannot.